Man 'killed at-risk toddler'

A 31-year-old Hinckley man killed a toddler with cerebral palsy on the first day he was allowed unsupervised access to the child following a previous incident in which the baby was injured, a court heard today....

A 31-year-old Hinckley man killed a toddler with cerebral palsy on the first day he was allowed unsupervised access to the child following a previous incident in which the baby was injured, a court heard today.

Karl Ison was made the subject of a social services order after 14-month-old Jack Carding suffered fractures to his leg in December 1999, Birmingham Crown Court was told.

Colman Treacy QC, prosecuting, told the jury that following the incident, the youngster, who was born 10 weeks premature and suffered from breathing difficulties, was placed on an at-risk register.

No police action was taken at the time.

Ison, who was not Jack's natural father but the boyfriend of his mother, Eleanor Carding, had said the baby might have twisted his leg on a sofa.

The social services order was lifted in March last year.

On the morning of April 21 last year, Ison was with little Jack while his mother was at work.

But he called her several hours later to say that the child, who was frail, and had difficulty moving, was not responding and seemed sleepy.

She returned home after asking Ison to call a doctor and the pair took Jack to George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton.

Doctors identified bruising around the baby's left ear and on both legs, while his eyes were unresponsive and there was bleeding behind his left eye consistent with a brain injury.

Jack was transferred to the Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, where his condition deteriorated and he died the following day, Mr Treacy told the court.

A post-mortem examination showed that the head injuries were caused by a combination of shaking and an impact, he added.

"We say that this was someone that, in all probability, lost his temper with this child and subjected him to serious violence which caused his death," he said.

"It follows that the day upon which Jack sustained his fatal injuries was the very first day after the incident in which Jack had sustained his broken leg bones that he was left alone in the care of Karl Ison."

Ison was unable to explain how the child, who had seemed fit and uninjured when his mother went to work, came to be bruised and unconscious in the space of two-and-a-half hours, Mr Treacy said.

Nor had he been able to explain why he had not alerted neighbours or taken the child to hospital sooner.

"Mr Ison used unlawful force. There was no lawful excuse for shaking or causing an impact to the child's head. It was wrong and wholly inappropriate," he went on.

"We say that he knew perfectly well this was a child which was incapable of free movement on his own and any reasonable person would have realised what they were doing was likely to prove extremely harmful."